The problem of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) seems to be the
‘new varroa’ talk of the day in the bee and public press. I can
well remember the days not so long ago when varroa was the only
thing that beekeepers talked about – and perhaps it still should
be. I have been in the beekeeping world a comparatively short
time and my main interests in it have been both the production
side of things and the scientific side of beekeeping research. I
happily trawl through an awful lot of research articles for Apis
UK for example and I have watched over those few years as new
and exotically named syndromes have come along – Varroasis;
Parasytic Mite Syndrome; Virus diseases of various kinds; a new
variant of Nosema and now CCD, and as I read various bits and
pieces and listen to people talking on the subject, except for
the new variant of nosema, it usually all comes back to varroa.
I could be spot off here but that’s what it all looks like to
me.
There is also I believe the very under estimated effects of
stress on bees to think about. Many beekeepers place enormous
stress on their colonies. I did. Moving them from winter
quarters to pollination where they could obtain no nectar
(kiwifruit) and feeding them copious amounts of sugar and then
moving them hurriedly from Gold fruit orchards to Green fruit
and then equally hurriedly to dump sites to congregate for the
big moves to manuka areas many hours away. Then splitting them
for increase and finally back to often inadequate and damp
winter sites (because of any lack of alternatives). Then the
process starts all over again. The stress in the colony must be
enormous and our moves were minor compared to the multiple
shifts I have read about in America. Ally all this to the
arrival of a new and devastating mite that assists in the
vectoring of existing harmful viruses and I think most humans
would give up the ghost. The effect on bees must be catastrophic
and so it would seem. They are disappearing. So would I. Let’s
hope that science can help sort it all out because I’m sure that
in this particular case, evolution needs a hand. So come on
governments. If you still want a green and pleasant land for the
future, grow the odd spine or two and start giving.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, or in this case Apis UK, we have again
put together some interesting articles about bees and pollination
and we include a political column for the first time which provides
topical comment in this issue on the two Hillarys and how they are
linked! The issue of bats and how to share them is raised and we
take a look at fast learning bumble bees and investigate the latest
knowledge about small hive beetles. (All of these new disease and
pests seem to have come along ever since I took up beekeeping.
Varroa arrived a year after I started!). Chad charms and amuses us
again and in our historical note we learn of a church that based its
design on that of a beehive.
Beekeeping is certainly presenting us with some challenges and
the number of skills needed by beekeepers to maintain their bees in
a healthy and contented state is increasing all of the time and
knowledge is the key to it all. This is where Apis UK amongst other
worthy publications can help. So do keep reading and learning and if
there is any topic you wish raised, please get in touch.
BEEKEEPING NEWS
Back to top
Last month we were all saddened by the
death of Sir Edmund Hillary, well known all over the world for his
conquest of Everest but little known as a commercial beekeeper in
New Zealand. We are also witnessing a struggle between two
‘potentials.’ Hillary Clinton who may become Americas’ first woman
president and Barak Obama who may become Americas’ first black
president. But it is Hillary we are concerned with in this brief
political column. Was she named after Sir Ed? In an article in the
New York Post during Bill Clinton’s presidency it seems that she
could possibly perhaps have been! (All good political
dissembling words).
 |
| Hillary & Hillary |
Hillary Clinton's claim that her mother named her after Sir
Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest was a surprise
to many. Meeting Sir Edmund by chance at the Katmandu airport,
Hillary apparently made up the story on the spot, telling reporters
she was named after the intrepid explorer. To further her claim, she
provided some details: While her mother was pregnant, she had read
an article about Sir Edmund and noticed that he spelled his name
with two l's - “which,” the ex first lady said, is how her mother
“thought she was supposed to spell Hillary.” She continued: “So when
I was born, she called me Hillary, and she always told me it's
because of Sir Edmund Hillary.” The New York Post went on to say:
But Sir Edmund didn't climb Everest until May 29, 1953 - 5 1/2 years
after Hillary Rodham was born. In fact, until 1951 Sir Edmund
Hillary hadn't even left New Zealand for his climb in the Himalayas.
Before that, he was an unknown beekeeper.
(BUT, to me it was a good story and I admire her spontaneity.
I would have done just the same. Ed)
RESEARCH NEWS
Back to top
Early Pollinators - New Information 100 Miliion years
old!
The collapse of honeybee colonies across North America is focusing
attention on the honeybees’ vital role in the survival of
agricultural crops, and a new study by University of Florida and
Indiana University researchers shows insect pollinators have likely
played a key role in the evolution and success of flowering plants
for nearly 100 million years.
The origins of when flowers managed to harness insects’ pollinating
power been a discussion and study point amongst scientists for
decades and now, a new study, published in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences in the USA is the first to show a
96-million-year-old timeframe as a turning point in the evolution of
basal angiosperm groups, or early flowering plants, by demonstrating
they are predominantly insect-pollinated.
 |
A 96-million-year-old fossilized
angiosperm pollen clump of Phimopollenites striolata
taken from three sites in Minnesota's Dakota
Formation. (Each grain in the clump measures
approximately 14-by-19 microns). Clumping is
generally found only in animal-pollinated flowering
plants.
(Image courtesy of University of Florida) |
|
“Our study of clumping pollen shows that insect pollinators most
likely have always played a large role in the evolution of flowering
plants,” said David Dilcher, a graduate research professor of
paleobotany at the Florida Museum of Natural History. “It was true
96 million years ago and we are seeing it today with the potential
threat to our agricultural crops because of the collapse of the
honeybee colonies. The insect pollinators provide for more efficient
and effective pollination of flowering plants.”
The study provides strong evidence for the widely accepted
hypothesis that insects drove the massive adaptive radiation of
early flowering plants when they rapidly diversified and expanded to
exploit new terrestrial niches. Land plants first appear in the
fossil record about 425 million years ago, but flowering plants
didn’t appear until about 125 million years ago in the Early
Cretaceous period.
The study also is the first to describe the biological structure of
pollen clumping in the early Late Cretaceous, which holds clues
about the types of pollinators with which they were coevolving.
Previously, scientists found examples of early clumped pollen from a
slightly earlier time period but these were interpreted as immature
parts of anther from a flower, or dismissed as insect packaging
activity or faecal pellets.
The scientists say that they really had to jump out of the box and
think in a new way on these widespread pollen clumps.
Today, flowers specialized for insect pollination disperse clumps of
five to 100 pollen grains. Clumped grains are comparatively larger
and have more surface relief than wind- or water-dispersed pollen,
which tend to be single, smaller and smoother.
These clumps represent an amazing new strategy in the evolution of
flowering Plants say the researchers. The important thing here lies
in the early times of these fossil flowers, when angiosperms were
making these huge evolutionary steps. What they found with the
fossil pollen clumps folds nicely into what has been suggested by
molecular biologists that those plants that are basal in angiosperm
evolutionary relationships seem to have been dominated by insect
pollination.”
The nine species of fossil pollen clumps, combined with known
structural changes occurring in flowering plants at this time, led
the researchers to suggest that insect pollination was well
established by the early Late Cretaceous — only a few million years
before the explosion in diversity and distribution of flowering
plant families. Known structural changes include early prototypes of
stamen and anther, plant organs which lift pollen up and away from
the plant, positioning the plants’ genetic material to be passed off
to visiting insects.The researchers sampled pollen from three sites
in Minnesota’s Dakota Formation, which represents a time period when
a shallow seaway covered North America’s interior.
Note: This article has been adapted from materials provided by
University of Florida.
The January 2008 issue of BioScience includes an article by
biologist Edward O. Wilson that argues for a new perspective on the
evolution of advanced social organization in some ants, bees, and
wasps (Hymenoptera).
Wilson's article surveys recent evidence that the high level of
social organization called "eusociality," found in some Hymenoptera
(and rarely in other species), is a result of natural selection on
nascent colonies of species possessing features that predispose them
to colonial life. Wilson concludes that these features, principally
progressive provisioning of larvae and behavioural flexibility that
leads to division of labour, allow some species to evolve colonies
that are maintained and defended because of their proximity to food
sources.
Eusociality is a challenge for biologists to understand because
worker castes in eusocial species forgo individual reproduction but
rear young that are not their own, a behaviour that biologists label
altruistic. Wilson's current view about eusociality differs from the
assessment in his seminal book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis
(1975). According to that widely accepted earlier account, selection
acting on individuals that are related (kin selection), rather than
on whole colonies, explains eusociality in Hymenoptera. Kin
selection is thought to be especially powerful in these animals
because of an unusual genetic system, known as haplodiploidy, that
they share.
Wilson's survey in BioScience, which examines the findings of a
number of researchers, points out aspects of the occurrence of
eusociality that the standard explanation has difficulty accounting
for. Eusociality has evolved only a few times, and not all of them
were in haplodiploid species. Furthermore, the great majority of
haplodiploid species are not eusocial. Wilson holds that selection
acting on traits that emerge at a group level provides a more
complete explanation for eusociality's rare instances than kin
selection. Kin selection is, he writes, "not wrong" but incomplete.
The view Wilson advocates is controversial because theoretical
biologists have thus far been unable to create mathematical models
that demonstrate the strong colony-level selection that Wilson
postulates. Any theory about eusociality has to explain why
selection acting on individuals does not lead some to undermine the
colony by reproducing themselves. According to some of Wilson's
critics, the theory he now espouses relies on unacknowledged
individual-level selection rather than group selection.
Notes:
1. Journal article: One Giant Leap: How Insects Achieved Altruism
and Colonial
Life. Edward O. Wilson
2. Adapted from materials provided by American Institute of
Biological Sciences.
A New perspective on the evolution of social organisation
The January 2008 issue of BioScience includes an article by
biologist Edward O. Wilson that argues for a new perspective on the
evolution of advanced social organization in some ants, bees, and
wasps (Hymenoptera).
 |
Eusociality -
A problem for scientists to understand
|
|
Wilson's article surveys recent evidence that the high level of
social organization called "eusociality," found in some Hymenoptera
(and rarely in other species), is a result of natural selection on
nascent colonies of species possessing features that predispose them
to colonial life. Wilson concludes that these features, principally
progressive provisioning of larvae and behavioural flexibility that
leads to division of labour, allow some species to evolve colonies
that are maintained and defended because of their proximity to food
sources.
Eusociality is a challenge for biologists to understand because
worker castes in eusocial species forgo individual reproduction but
rear young that are not their own, a behaviour that biologists label
altruistic. Wilson's current view about eusociality differs from the
assessment in his seminal book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis
(1975). According to that widely accepted earlier account, selection
acting on individuals that are related (kin selection), rather than
on whole colonies, explains eusociality in Hymenoptera. Kin
selection is thought to be especially powerful in these animals
because of an unusual genetic system, known as haplodiploidy, that
they share.
Wilson's survey in BioScience, which examines the findings of a
number of researchers, points out aspects of the occurrence of
eusociality that the standard explanation has difficulty accounting
for. Eusociality has evolved only a few times, and not all of them
were in haplodiploid species. Furthermore, the great majority of
haplodiploid species are not eusocial. Wilson holds that selection
acting on traits that emerge at a group level provides a more
complete explanation for eusociality's rare instances than kin
selection. Kin selection is, he writes, "not wrong" but incomplete.
The view Wilson advocates is controversial because theoretical
biologists have thus far been unable to create mathematical models
that demonstrate the strong colony-level selection that Wilson
postulates. Any theory about eusociality has to explain why
selection acting on individuals does not lead some to undermine the
colony by reproducing themselves. According to some of Wilson's
critics, the theory he now espouses relies on unacknowledged
individual-level selection rather than group selection.
Notes:
1. Journal article: One Giant Leap: How Insects Achieved Altruism
and Colonial
Life. Edward O. Wilson
2. Adapted from materials provided by American Institute of
Biological Sciences.
Fast Learning Bumblebees Reap Greater Nectar Rewards
The speed with which bees learn affects their ability to collect
food from flowers, according to a new study from Queen Mary College,
University of London.
As nectar levels in flowers change from minute-to-minute, faster
learning bees are more likely to keep track of which blooms are most
rewarding, and thrive as a result.
Dr Nigel Raine and Professor Lars Chittka from Queen Mary’s School
of Biological and Chemical Sciences presented twelve bumblebee (Bombus
terrestris) colonies with flight arenas containing blue and yellow
artificial flowers, which were stocked with different amounts of
nectar reward. The bees were challenged to overcome their natural
preference for ‘blue’ flowers, and to learn that the ‘yellow’
flowers were more rewarding. The team found that the colonies which
learned colours quickly, were more successful foragers.
The colonies’ learning speeds varied by a factor of nearly five;
those colonies which learnt to associate the yellow, nectar-rich
flowers, with rewards fastest in the laboratory, went on to harvest
66 per cent more nectar than the slowest learning colonies, from
real flowers under field conditions.
The scientists say that it is often assumed that the learning
abilities of animals are adapted to the environments in which they
live and that faster learning animals should be at an advantage.
Their study is the first to go out and test this assumption looking
at an animal in the wild. They found that faster learning bees
appear to have an advantage when looking for food.”Foraging bees use
a variety of cues, including floral colour, pattern and scent, to
recognize, discriminate and learn the flowers from which they
collect food. As bees naturally forage in an environment in which
the most rewarding flower type often changes, it seems likely that
bees which learn quickly have the flexibility to keep track of the
most rewarding flowers.
The team’s findings suggest that differences in learning performance
have important evolutionary consequences for animal foraging and
fitness under natural conditions.
Rather like us, some bees learn from their mistakes more quickly
than others. These faster learning bees also collect more nectar
from flowers, which ultimately means their colony will be more
successful.
Notes: “The correlation of learning speed and natural
foraging success in bumblebees” was published online in the
Proceedings of the Royal Society – B on Wednesday, 16 January 2008:
(
http://www.publishing.royalsociety.org/proceedingsb)
The work has been funded by the Natural Environment Research
Council.
This article was adapted from materials provided by Queen Mary,
University Of London.
HIVE BEETLES AND BEE ALARM SIGNALS – A new found danger
The Small Hive Beetle is looming on many beekeepers horizons
especially in Europe where it has not yet established itself. It has
however reached the USA where a considerable amount of research is
going in to find ways of combating it. A new piece of research has
found that this beast is smarter than we thought – and smarter than
the bees as well.
The honeybee’s alarm signal to other bees while sting you may not
only bring help, but it also attract the small hive beetle. An
international team of researchers has found that small hive beetles
can detect some alarm pheromones at levels below that detected by
honeybees.
 |
| The Small Hive Beetle – Perfectly
adapted to its environment |
|
The beetles associate the alarm chemicals with a good food source
and head for the hive. The researchers tested the response of both
the small hive beetles and honeybees to isopentyl acetate (IPA), the
major chemical in the bee’s alarm pheromones. The first tests showed
that when worker bees become alarmed, they produce from 1,500 to
10,000 times more IPA than found in an undisturbed hive. Next the
researchers used a gas-chromatagraph-electroantennogram to analyze
the chemical sensitively of the insects’ antennae. They report in a
recent online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences that the beetles could detect the equivalent of 2 nanograms
of IPA at the entrance to an undisturbed honeybee colony, but the
antennae of guard and forager bees did not detect this level of IPA.
This indicates strongly that the heightened sensitivity of the
beetles to volatiles released from the hive entrance allows them to
key in on the bee colonies without bees responding to their attack.
Complicating the issue is a yeast that grows in the hives that
produces the same alarm substance. The researchers found that this
yeast only produced IPA when it grew on pollen. Even pollen
substitute, a food sometimes provided for bees, did not increase the
amounts of IPA produced.
The researchers are not really sure how the yeast gets into the
colony and hypothesise that perhaps one beetle finds and carries the
yeast in and it reproduces, or, because the yeast grows on pollen in
nature, perhaps bees bring it into the hive.
Adapted from materials provided by Penn State
Bat Sharing – (Nothing to do with Bees).
It is because pollination of plants is so important to human beings
and the planet generally that bees are one of the most economically
important insects on earth. The co-evolution of plants and bees to
get to this state is incredible, but other life forms have also
evolved to service plants an bat are one of the most specialised.
New research shows how different species of plants evolve unique
floral adaptations in order to transfer pollen on different regions
of bats' bodies, thus allowing multiple plant species to share bats
as pollinators.
A pattern of character displacement has only rarely been shown for
plants, and this is the first study to examine the competitive
mechanism and process driving this pattern.
When multiple plant species occur in the same habitat and share the
same pollinator, large amounts of pollen may be transferred between
different species. This form of plant-plant competition can reduce
the fitness of all species by interfering with successful
pollination. Researchers have found that co-occurring bat-pollinated
species of the genus Burmeistera reduce competition by evolving
differences in flower shape. This serves to place pollen in
different regions of the bats bodies, and thus greatly reduces
"incorrect" (between-species) pollen transfer. Experiments with bats
and flowers showed that greater differences in flower shape between
two species decreases "incorrect" pollen transfer and thus maximizes
successful pollination.
This research study clearly demonstrates that these plants are
competing and the competition is strong enough for them to evolve
unique characteristics in order to reduce competition for
pollination
Along with the experimental work, the research team also analyzed
Burmeistera in 18 field sites, and found that differences in flower
morphology between co-occurring species were much greater than what
would be expected by chance.
The study, titled "Character displacement among bat-pollinated
flowers of the genus Burmeistera: analysis of the mechanism, process
and pattern", was recently published in the Proceedings of the Royal
Society B, and implies that Burmeistera evolve to use different
portions of bats bodies than the co-occurring species in their
habitat.
HONEY AS A COUGH MEDICINE
(Honey found to be better than over the counter treatment)
For thousands of years, honey has been thought of as a cure or at
least a relief giver for many ailments. Most of the evidence for
this is anecdotal and clinical research on the subject is rare.
Because of this, the medical profession is naturally reluctant to
take up honey as a medicine. In recent years however we have seen
manuka honey emerge from the ‘alternative’ unproven category of
medicines to be a major treatment for wounds because of research
carried out mainly in New Zealand. Now, clinical research in the USA
has found another medicinal use for honey.
A new study by a Penn State College of Medicine research team in the
USA found that honey may offer parents an effective and safe
alternative than over the counter children's cough medicines.
 |
| Buckwheat honey proven as a cough medicine |
|
The study found that a small dose of buckwheat honey given before
bedtime provided better relief of night time cough and sleep
difficulty in children than no treatment or dextromethorphan (DM), a
cough suppressant found in many over-the-counter cold medications.
Honey did a better job reducing the severity, frequency and
bothersome nature of night time cough from upper respiratory
infection than DM or no treatment. Honey also showed a positive
effect on the sleep quality of both the coughing child and the
child's parents. DM was not significantly better at alleviating
symptoms than no treatment.
These findings are especially notable since an FDA advisory board
recently recommended that over-the-counter cough and cold medicines
not be given to children less than 6 years old because of their lack
of effectiveness and potential for side effects.
A previous study published in 2004, showed that neither DM nor
diphenhydramine, another common component of cold medications,
performed better than a placebo at reducing night time cough or
improving sleep quality. However, honey has been used for centuries
in some cultures to treat upper respiratory infection symptoms like
cough, and is considered to be safe for children over 12 months old.
Honey has well-established antioxidant and antimicrobial effects,
which could explain its contributions to wound healing. Honey also
soothes on contact, which may help explain its effect on cough as
suggested by the World Health Organization.
The study adds to the growing literature questioning the use of DM
in children, but it also offers a legitimate and safe alternative
for physicians and parents
Potentially dangerous effects of DM in young children include
dystonic reactions, severe involuntary muscle contractions and
spasms. Further, DM is a commonly used as a drug of abuse by
adolescents. Cough is the reason for nearly three percent of all
outpatient visits in the United States, more than any other symptom.
It is particularly bothersome at night because it disrupts sleep.
Consumers spend billions of dollars each year on OTC cough and cold
medications despite little evidence that these drugs provide
significant relief.
Journal reference: Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161(12):1140-1146.
This article was adapted from materials provided by Penn State
University.
SMR Research in New Zealand
Using SMR research from mainly the USA, New Zealand researchers say
they have bred honeybees which are not only resistant to varroa
mites, but fight back by making the mite larvae sterile.
Using bees selected from around New Zealand, HortResearch honeybee
scientist Mark Goodwin and his team have been crossing breeding
lines of bees to increase the levels of a natural resistance in the
population.
"It's a tricky business, requiring the careful artificial
insemination of queen bees in the lab," Dr Goodwin said. "We've been
able to breed bees whose hives render up to 80 per cent of varroa
sterile," he said.
"The problem is that the process is expensive and time-consuming. We
could never rely on artificial insemination to supply the amount of
bees needed to continuously replenish the resistance genetics of New
Zealand's 300,000 commercial beehives."
 |
Can SMR knowledge
counter Varroa |
|
Dr Goodwin's team hope that they can establish a self-sustaining
"stud" population of high-resistance bees by keeping them isolated
as "closed hives" as crossbreeding from any remaining wild bees or
ordinary hives would effectively dilute the resistance.
Their stud bees are being bred up on Great Mercury, an island
billionaire entrepreneurs Sir Michael Fay and David Richwhite own
off the coast of the Coromandel Peninsula.
If the experiment is successful the island could provide a model for
other offshore breeding centres for large numbers of highly
resistant queens. These could then form the basis of a continuous
flow of new genetics to the mainland, helping to maintain high
levels of resistance in commercial hives.
HONEY DRESSINGS - NEW RESEARCH
There has been a wealth of clinical research the great value of
honey as an effective wound dressing, and they are increasingly used
in the UK and USA mainstream medicine centres. Also in this Apis UK
we report on trials of honey as an effective cough medicine, but
just as an aspirin won’t cure an in-growing toenail (I don’t think
it will anyway), honey might not be the panacea for all wounds and
injuries. Recent trials in New Zealand have found that treating
venous leg ulcers with honey dressings is unlikely to help healing
when compared with normal care. Treating a leg ulcer with dressings
impregnated with honey did not significantly improve the rate of
healing, but did lead to a significantly increased number of
reported adverse events, according to research published recently in
the British Journal of Surgery.
 |
| Honey dressings. Excellent for many
applications, but not for all |
|
The breakdown in skin tissue below the knee that ends in venous leg
ulcers forming has been recognised for centuries. Since the 17th
century it has been treated by applying a compression bandage and we
now know that this helps the leg cope with the constant pressure of
fluids in lower parts of the body (hydrostatic pressure).
The current interest in alternative medicines has led to renewed
interest in honey as a potential healing agent, and some people have
suggested using honey dressings as well as a compression bandage.In
a trial run in four centres around New Zealand (Auckland, South
Auckland, Waikato and Christchurch), 368 patients were randomly
divided into two groups.
One was given conventional dressings, the other was given dressings
impregnated with honey. Both groups had compression bandaging. After
12 weeks there was no significant difference between the rates of
healing in the two groups. However, the honey treatment was more
expensive, and people in that group reported significantly more
adverse events than in the conventional group (111 vs 84 P=0.013).
"In our trial the honey dressing did not significantly improve
healing, time to healing, change in ulcer area, incidence of
infection or quality of life," says lead author Dr Andrew Jull who
works in the Clinical Trials Research Unit at the University of
Auckland.
"The current focus of venous ulcer management should remain on
compression and other treatments that have demonstrated that they
improve compression's ability to work or prevent ulcer recurrence,"
says Dr Jull.
ARTICLES
Back to top
A Day at the Office By Chad
How was your Day at the Office?
I write this article several hours after spending all day selling
honey at a cold and windy stall outside the Outlet Village in
Swindon.
I suppose dealing with customers is an intrinsically necessary,
though tiresome occupation when working on farmers’ markets. Whereas
the vast majority of the public are well-meaning, polite and
engaging, there are those who continually try to thwart my efforts
to be pleasant. Anyone who has ever worked on a stall, maybe anyone
who has worked in retail, or maybe just anyone who has ever worked
will know that it is the rudeness of others that can really grate on
ones nerves and make a potentially nice day, less so.
Being a teacher, I cannot stand to see children that have failed to
receive their healthy and correct dose of discipline by the age of
two. Though I suppose the blame ultimately lies with the parents, I
reckon most two year olds are self aware enough to know right from
wrong; their sticky little grabbing hands aren’t displaying
playfulness, I’m sure it’s malicious intent.
These children fall into two categories, (as defined by the
behaviour of their parents.) I will summarise both. There are those
children who have beaten their parent(s) into submission, their
parents are at their wit’s end, they have probably played-up all
day, so, when the child decides my honey stall is the next play-area
the parents are too numb to their surroundings to react to their
frantic behaviour so that it is down to me to fend them off.
Then there is the other variety of child, this one has been brought
up by parents who believe that fair discipline and good manners will
rub off on their child passively, the best word to describe these
children is feral.
As my honey may ultimately be bought for the feral child in
question, whose sticky fingers are everywhere and ruining my efforts
to display good hygiene, I cannot stop the child from tasting the
honey, in fact I must actively encourage this. I have learned that
children will rarely take a prepared tasting stick from me, this may
be because some idiot taught them not to accept things from
strangers, but instead they are taught that, Chad’s Honey stall is a
holistically tactile experience where the privilege of getting to
dip the stick is as rewarding as the sweet, sweet taste of summer
that Chad’s Honey brings.
The novelty of certain situations has worn off, like when the child
dips their stick into the sample pot, tastes the honey, smiles or
makes appropriate noises of joy and then sticks the same licked
stick back into the pot. There then follows a thousand apologies
from mum: Dad, of course, never apologies, he just tells said child
off which, when the child then cries, is as good as an apology.
There is also the dexterity test; many members of the public seem
quite slow to understand that liquids run. I now always
instinctively say, ‘make sure you twiddle the stick.’ I loose count
of the number of scowls I receive from angry mums who have
Sunday-best tops to wash when they get home because their son or
daughter was too kack-handed to roll the tasting stick. I love it
when adults (and sadly it’s usually men) get it all down their
fronts. This is usually a result of them trying to get far too much
honey on to the stick, greed, greed, greed.
Mind you, I like greedy customers. Greed, though sinful, is good for
business. My best customers are not thin. What I cannot stand, is
the greedy customer who doesn’t want to buy anything. If there is
one thing worse than that, it is the customer who tries the honey,
tells you that it isn’t to their taste, or that it’s too sweet, too
runny or too stiff and then helps themselves to some more, reasserts
his or her opinion before walking off. Like I wanted your opinion,
****! Or the customer who eats half of the sample pot before looking
and checking that you don’t have cut comb, before asking if you have
cut comb and then telling you that that it is cut comb they were
really after.
I am very nervous of the large family group that can sometimes
descend on my stall; they are like industrial Hoovers that treat my
stall like a bird table. Mum, Dad, three children, the neighbour’s
children and two other extraneous adults, take two sample sticks
each and pass the sample pot around several times, often remarking
on how delicious the honey is, before saying a (usually very honest)
thank you before walking away without purchase.
I don’t mind the excuse, ‘I might come back later.’ Nor do I mind
the very up-front ‘I am not going to buy anything today,’ I like
people to try my honey. It is nice when people say nice things about
it. It’s just the ignorance of some which gets under my skin
sometimes, that’s all. Happy New Year.
RECIPE OF THE MONTH
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Asparagus with Honey-Garlic Sauce
This fine recipe includes a superb mix of ingredient that brings out
a taste of Southern Europe in every delicious bite. The ingredients
are all easy to get hold of and I tried it with green asparagus but
I guess hat the big white asparagus would do just as well.
1 lb fresh asparagus
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup beer dark or dark ale
1/3 cup honey
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 tsp dried thyme crushed
1/2 tsp salt
Trim or break off asparagus spears at tender point; rinse.
In large skillet, in boiling water to cover, cook asparagus until
crisp-tender, 3-5 minutes. Do not overcook. Drain and rinse under
cold water.
Combine remaining ingredients for the sauce. Pour over asparagus.
FACT FILE
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The National Diploma in Beekeeping.
The Examinations Board of the National Diploma in Beekeeping would
like to announce that an examination will be held in 2008.
The written papers will be held on Saturday 15th March, the same
date as the BBKA exams, to be taken at a convenient location to be
arranged. The practical assessment will be held on one day of the
weekend of July 19th / 20th, at Easton College, Norwich, Norfolk.
The Fee for the Examination will be £100.
Although the NDB Board has discussed changes in the format of the
examination, these will not take place until 2009, so the format of
the 2008 examination will be exactly as given in the syllabus on the
Board's website, and will exactly follow the format of the past
papers also available there:-
http://www.national-diploma-bees.org.uk/
The 2008 Advanced Beekeeping Course will be held at CSL York from
7th to 11th July. Details will be available shortly from Ken
Basterfield, Course Tutor:
ken@basterfield.com
For further details please contact the NDB Board Secretary: Norman
Carreck, New Hall, Small Dole, Henfield, West Sussex. BN5 9YJ Email:
norman.carreck@btinternet.com
HISTORICAL NOTE
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The Legend of Hagia Sophia Church
It isn’t every day that the design of a church is based upon
that of a beehive, but the great Justinian who effectively converted
Rome to Christianity, did just that.
Hagia Sophia, “Holy Wisdom,” was originally a basilica style church
built in the fourth century. After the church burned down twice,
Emperor Justinian built the present, fireproof structure around 537
A.D. Hagia Sophia served as a Christian church for 900 years until
1453, when Moslem Turks took the city and converted it into a
mosque. In 1935, it was turned into a public museum.
A legend about the design of the church says that one day during
Mass, Emperor Justinian dropped the holy bread from his hands.
Before he could grasp it, a bee picked it up and flew away.
Justinian sent a message to all beekeepers in the empire to look for
the bread in their hives. After a couple of days, a beekeeper
arrived with a hive of peculiar design. Upon seeing it, Justinian
decided that he would build a magnificent church with the design of
this hive as its ground plan.
POEM OF THE MONTH
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This month I include two short ‘humorous’ poems. If anyone
knows of the author of either, please write in and let me know. The
poems may be a tadge frivolous – almost infantile but they do sum up
certain situations very well.
THE HONEY LOVER
I eat my peas with honey,
I've done it all my life,
It makes my peas taste funny,
But it keeps them on my knife.
Author: Unknown
THE BEEKEEPER
There was a man who loved the bees,
He always was their friend,
He sat around upon their hives,
But they stung him in the end.
Author: Unknown
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
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The person who made this quote is very well known and one of
those characters who even in this modern day managed to capture the
imagination of a whole generation of people. Who said this?
The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist. For man it
is to know that and to wonder at it.
Editor: David Cramp
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